I
did it. I finally did it. After 11 (12 if you count Spider-Man:The Original Clone Saga trade paperback) chunky 400+ page
trade paperbacks, I have read the entire Clone Saga in all of it's
infamous glory. It was at times exhausting, at times (due to the
artwork) excruciating, but it was by and large highly enjoyable. I'll
admit that the ending of it was something of a clusterf**k, but
Marvel had sort of backed themselves into a corner and were in an
unwinnable situation.

Things
start out really strong, with the resolution of the gangster
Jimmy-6's storyline. I am a sucker for all of the crime lords and
gang wars of the Marvel Universe, and many of my favorite Spider-Man
villains turn up: Tombstone, the Rose, Caesar Cicero, Hammerhead,
Silverman, and the Slug. I have always dug on Tombstone since his
first appearance and am a sucker for Silver and Bronze Age villains
like Hammerhead. The fact that we are treated to some stellar John
Romita, Jr. artwork didn't hurt, either.

Spider-Man
Unlimited #14 is horrid. Everything that it wrong with
'90s comics is on display in this issue. Ill-conceived villains with
ill-conceived costume designs. Horrid Image-influenced artwork by the
abysmal Joe Bennett. Sloppy hand lettering. Colorists going apeshit
with the then-new bells and whistles of computer color separations,
coloring people's faces with four different flesh tones. Just
ridiculous. I'll stop short of criticism on the coloring, though,
because they were experimenting and discovering the limits of this
new coloring technology. It just hasn't aged very well.

There
is a continuity gaffe in Spider-Man
Unlimited #14. Ben Reilly recognizes
the Rocket Racer, who first appeared in Amazing
Spider-Man #172. This is after
Reilly would have left New York, and he had not appeared anywhere
where he could have possibly interacted with Reilly.

Spider-Man:
Team-Up#5
is another example of comics gone wrong. I am going out on a limb
here because everyone loves Gambit, but I think that he sucks. He has
a stupid power, an even worse costume, and I can't stand reading his
Cajun dialogue. I can imagine my own dialects, I don't need his
dialect spelled out in every word balloon. The story in and of itself
is good in spite of all of this. It was Steve Gerber's Howard The
Duck back-up story that sucks. I have never been a Howard the Duck
fan but I am a huge fan of Gerber's Man-Thing
run. The story is full of so much of latter era Gerber's self
reverence that it is off-putting. I realize that Howard The Duck was
satire, but it was never my cup of tea. The redesigned Circus of
Crime made me ill. There's even an appearance by Kiss in this issue,
another nod to Gerber's '70s comics heyday. I did enjoy the Valujet
and Savage Dragon spoofs, though. Apologies to all Duck and Gerber
fans, but this story blew.

Artwork by John Romita, Jr.

Luke
Ross' early artwork is horrid. I was shocked when a reader pointed
out to me that he did a run of newer material that I enjoyed. I did a
quick look and sure enough, Ross has evolved into a fine, fine
artist, and I have enjoyed many issues that he has done. His work
here is pretty bad, though. Chalk it up as the work of a young artist
finding his voice. Steve Skroce's artwork made me ill. There is
nothing pleasing to the eye about it.

Fortunately
we get treated to Kyle Hotz's unique artwork in Spider-Man:
The Osborn Journal. Hotz's work
always has serrated edge to it, and it works really well with the
Green Goblin. The one-shot spoof Spider-Man:
101 Ways To End The Clone Sagawas an entertaining read and offered
some interesting takes on the ending. I quite liked the whole Dr.
Seward Trainer as Judas Traveller idea, even if it wasn't airtight.
Coulda shoulda woulda, right?

The
book ends with the one-shot Spider-Man:
Dead Man's Hand, this one featuring
an old favorite of mine, Carrion. It ended the book on a good note.
So there you have it. Everything that you ever wanted to know about
the Complete Clone Saga/Ben
Reilly Epic trades but were afraid
to ask. I just hope that Marvel doesn't slap all of these books into
five Omnibus hardcovers anytime soon...

Junk
Food For Thought rating: 3.75 out of 5.

The
OCD zone- The fourteen story pages that were exclusive to the
1997 Spider-Man: Revelations trade paperback are included
here, interspersed with Spider-Man #75 as they were in that
trade paperback. The entire issue was recolored by Gregory Wright for
the 1997 collected edition, and that is the version collected here.
(Special thanks to Jeph York for clarifying that tidbit for me!) Now
my OCD completist self also wants to see the issue as it was
originally presented and colored. Maybe the seemingly inevitable
Omnibus will collect it as an extra. Why do I do this stuff to
myself. Why? Why???

DVD-style
Extras included in this book: The Return Of
The One True Spider-Man house ad for the Revelations
crossover.

Linework
and Color restoration rating: 4.75 out of 5. There are three
pages where the colors appear muted, with the blacks looking
especially weak. I suspect that it was a printer error, but
regardless of whose fault it is, it costs .25 OCD points.

Paper
rating: 4.5 out of 5. A good, thick glossy coated stock of paper.
It works well for material with more modern computer coloring. It
would not get as high of a rating if it were used on '60s-80s
material.

Binding
rating: 4.25 out of 5. Perfect bound book. That means glue, kids.
It has a nice thick band of glue, however, and it lays pretty flat in
one hand for about 80% of the book, like a big honking comic book
would.

Cardstock
cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. I never have a problem with
Marvel's waxlike laminated cardstock covers.

1 comment:

You did it -- congratulations!! It's good to know someone else has survived the entire Clone Saga journey, since I plan to make it myself one day. I was just flipping through my Clone Saga Vol. 1 and 3 trades last night (I don't remember why I'm missing Vol. 2...), thinking about how much I enjoyed the parts of this era I read at the time. Like you've pointed out in your reviews, a lot of the artwork holds up, too...I love the designs for Ben's various costumes. I still miss him today, if only for that.